The marble was all burnt into perfect, snow-white lime. But on its surface, in the midst of the circle,-snow-white too, and thoroughly converted into lime,-lay a human skeleton, in the attitude of a person who, after long toil, lies down to long repose. Within the ribs-strange to say-was the shape of a human heart.
"Was the fellow's heart made of marble?" cried Bertram...
"At any rate, it is burnt into what looks like a special good lime... my kiln is half a bushel the richer for him."...
[T]he rude lime-burner lifted his pole, and, letting it fall upon the skeleton, the relics of Ethan Brand were crumbled into fragments. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

The marble was all burnt into perfect, snow-white lime. But on its surface, in the midst of the circle,-snow-white too, and thoroughly converted into lime,-lay a human skeleton, in the attitude of a person who, after long toil, lies down to long repose. Within the ribs-strange to say-was the shape of a human heart. "Was the fellow's heart made of marble?" cried Bertram... "At any rate, it is burnt into what looks like a special good lime... my kiln is half a bushel the richer for him."... [T]he rude lime-burner lifted his pole, and, letting it fall upon the skeleton, the relics of Ethan Brand were crumbled into fragments.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Related topics

burn bushel cry fall good half heart human lay midst perfect person surface lies looks

Related quotes